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Regarding the subject of "open access", some things need to be cleared up. What we are really talking about is an AT&T-style breakup of the Class I rail oligarchy. That doesn't necessarily mean a government takeover of the railroads, nor even government takeover of the infrastructure. The initial result of such a breakup would be seven or so rail infrastructure companies (BNSFi, UPi, CPi, CNi, NSi, CSXi, KCSi, with the "i" standing for "infrastructure") charging a dozen or more operating companies (BNSF, UP, CP, CN, NS, CSX, KCS, JBHunt, Swift, UPS, FedEx, Knight, et al) the rights to run over their particular regional rail infrastructure. The operating companies would have access to any customer located on the entire North American Rail grid. Thus, shippers would have true competitive rate setting, which would in turn attract more shippers back to rail from trucks. If such were to occur it is likely that rail would once again support 70% of freight movement on the North American continent (just like the good ole days). What would probably evolve is actually private/public infrastructure companies as the states, regional transport authorities, et al, begin to add public funding to the infrastructure mix to attract more businesses to their particular regions (e.g. funding track expansions, et al). Furthermore, it is likely that the rail operating companies that evolved from the trucking outfits would probably take most of the business away from the original rail operating companies, since today's trucking companies seem to be much more interested in generating new business and taking care of even the smallest customers. Class II and Class III railroads would continue to operate as they do now, except with more business, maybe enough to pay for those track upgrades that are so lacking right now. Innovation by the newer rail operating companies would probably result in more bi-modal technologies being employed, and also more running of shorter, faster trains nee-D&RGW, with more automation. Look for the rail infrastructure companies to favor a return to 264k cars rather than a jump to 315k cars, as the economies of track maintenance costs probably favor the lighter cars, e.g. bigger isn't better when it comes to track maintenance. Rail operating companies will compensate this by implementing more tri-axle and quad axle bogies to spread the weigh of cars over more axles and therefore allow the heavier loads. This is what the trucking companies are doing now to increase the load factor of the trailers to meet highway load restrictions while maximizing loads, and there is no reason to think they wouldn't do the same for railcars if they (the trucking companies) were running the rail show. With all this happening, we'll all look up and realize that our nation's fuel efficiency has suddenly skyrocketted with such a massiver return to rail from highway movements. Hmmmm, all it took was to open the railways to any qualified user willing to put in the time and effort to go after the business, even the small single carload customers. It's amazing what a little induced competition will do for a nation's economic health. DWS
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